Farewell. The Flying Pig Has Left The Building.

Steve Hynd, August 16, 2012

After four years on the Typepad site, eight years total blogging, Newshoggers is closing it's doors today. We've been coasting the last year or so, with many of us moving on to bigger projects (Hey, Eric!) or simply running out of blogging enthusiasm, and it's time to give the old flying pig a rest.

We've done okay over those eight years, although never being quite PC enough to gain wider acceptance from the partisan "party right or wrong" crowds. We like to think we moved political conversations a little, on the ever-present wish to rush to war with Iran, on the need for a real Left that isn't licking corporatist Dem boots every cycle, on America's foreign misadventures in Afghanistan and Iraq. We like to think we made a small difference while writing under that flying pig banner. We did pretty good for a bunch with no ties to big-party apparatuses or think tanks.

Those eight years of blogging will still exist. Because we're ending this typepad account, we've been archiving the typepad blog here. And the original blogger archive is still here. There will still be new content from the old 'hoggers crew too. Ron writes for The Moderate Voice, I post at The Agonist and Eric Martin's lucid foreign policy thoughts can be read at Democracy Arsenal.

I'd like to thank all our regular commenters, readers and the other bloggers who regularly linked to our posts over the years to agree or disagree. You all made writing for 'hoggers an amazingly fun and stimulating experience.

Thank you very much.

Note: This is an archive copy of Newshoggers. Most of the pictures are gone but the words are all here. There may be some occasional new content, John may do some posts and Ron will cross post some of his contributions to The Moderate Voice so check back.

Monday, October 24, 2011

OWS -- Robin Hood Tax & Drum Circle Note

On October 29th, as the Presidents and Leaders of the Group of 20 Nations meets in France, people across the world will rise up and demand that our G20 leaders immediate impose a 1% #ROBINHOOD tax on all financial transactions and currency trades.

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Financial Speculation Tax: This tax, less than one percent, would tax short term and often speculative activity- the sort of thing that helped create the crisis- and generate billions of dollars of revenue. For ordinary investors, the cost would barely be noticeable, but for Wall Street traders� activities, it is estimated that such a tax could generate up to $150 billion a year.

Fairness in Taxation: Not in our nation�s history since before the New Deal have those with the most contributed the least. During the Eisenhower and Kennedy administrations at the heart of America�s greatest economic boom, marginal tax rates were 90% on the wealthiest among us. The marginal tax rates must be raised across the board and tax avoidance like the �carried interest� or �hedge-fund managers�� loophole must be closed.

Bush Tax cuts for he wealthiest should expire: Over $700 billion dollars in revenue would be generated in the next ten years by allowing these tax cuts to run their course. Income growth over the last thirty years has largely been captured by the top one percent of earners. Tax cuts for the wealthy, as demonstrated above, do not make their way into the economy as a whole and do not create jobs. Everyday people, Wall Street, Big Banks and the wealthy must all pay their fair share for our economic recovery.

"What's a drum circle?" If you don't already know, you have You Tube homework to do. Notice how old some of these videos are. They've been around for years. But OWS is giving them new life. Think of them as the new frisbee.